Asian champion China claimed an opening win at the Doha Asian Games men's basketball tournament, but not as easily as its arch rival Lebanon did.

 

The Chinese, the incontestable No. 1 team in Asia, made great efforts to beat qualifier Kazakhstan 89-77 here on Saturday.

 

Earlier on Saturday, Lebanon, who eyed a title clash with China in the final, routed Uzbekistan 106-70 in another second round Group B match.

 

Sun Yue and Yi Jianlian combined for ten points to lead a 10-0 burst that pushed China up to 39-20 before Kazakhstan closed the first half with a 10-4 run to pull within 48-37.

 

After a seesaw game in the third quarter, Kazakhstan managed tocut its deficit to six points early in the fourth. Wang Shipeng made two three-pointers in a row to make it 78-66 and China held on for the victory.

 

Former NBA player Wang Zhizhi led China with 22 points with NBA prospect Yi Jianlian, who was struggling with foul trouble, adding 14.

 

Dmitriy Korovnikov finished with 22 points for Kazakhstan.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2006)